Spotlight
by OliveBranchStories
Summary: After the Battle of New York most of the Avengers leave for a variety of personal reasons. A few weeks later Bruce sees on the news that Tony is being sued because everybody thinks Stark Tower created the wormhole. Bruce hates the city but he can't just leave Tony to take the fall for the Avengers again. One shot.


**Hey everyone **

**This has been bouncing around my head a little bit and as today I bought an Avengers poster and put it on my wall I thought it would be appropriate to write something Avenger-ish. **

**(It's a poster where Tony Stark is in front of the Avengers holding his hand up in an imminent-shoot-someone-in-the-face sort of way…I am proud to say that so far I have made my sister and my mum high five him.)**

**I've also been having a few 'friend issues' recently which made me want to write a little friendship piece where everything works out because of the power of friendship! *Trumpet fanfare* **

**In the Authors note of one of my other stories I mentioned that I am teaching myself to ride my pony bareback. Yeah, I fell off yesterday. It didn't hurt at the time because he's about three feet tall and I've injured myself worse brushing my teeth, but I've been feeling a bit creaky today. **

**Anyway, I'll stop rambling and let you read the story, or if you read the author's note after the story, as I am prone to do, I'll let you get on with whatever it is you were going to do after reading this thing.**

**Enjoy!**

**(P.S. Because I find this sort of stuff interesting I'm going to tell you that the files work in progress name was 'Science Bros,' because come on…it's Tony and Bruce, what else would it be called?)**

**(P.P.S Damn, Iron Man 3 was awesome, wasn't it?)**

**/BRUCE BANNER\\**

Bruce's natural state was AWOL.

The only time he wasn't making himself as distant and inconspicuous as possible was when somebody else dragged him into the light.

It was these sorts of situations that generally lead to his mind going AWOL and the Other Guy stepping in.

He visited Stark Tower for a while after the Battle of New York but where Tony found the constant sparring with the press, the public and SHEILD for privacy energizing, a good opportunity for him to take his biting wit out for a walk, Bruce found it wearing, stressful. The constant _people _pressed against the back of his eyes like a migraine, as inescapable as if it were a physical illness.

So he left. Tony understood, Bruce could tell by the way Tony was saying thinly veiled insults that he was okay with Bruce leaving.

Anyway, Bruce had seen Pepper hanging around the lab doors enough to realize that it might be prudent to make him scarce, people or no people.

He'd only spent a few weeks, four at the most, in Stark Tower, but it didn't take him long to find a secluded hut to fold himself away into.

Of course, it wasn't _completely_ secluded.

It appeared that Tony had taken it upon himself to secret a tracking device onto the inside of Bruce's left shoe, because a few days after his arrival in the gloomy hut strange things started happening.

Like laboratory equipment being there in the morning when Bruce was certain had not been there the night before.

Like a flashy car cheesily hid beneath palm-leaves half-heartedly hidden in the bushes.

Like the roof no longer leaking, the walls no longer questionable and the plumbing starting to provide water, as opposed to the previous dust and remains of dead mice.

When Bruce confronted Tony, via mysteriously present webcam and Stark Laptop setup, Tony said words sharp enough to show that he had no idea how to explain himself because he had sent Bruce all this stuff out of the goodness of his heart.

Even though he realized why Tony had made it his mission to convert Bruce's shack into a very small mansion Bruce was still irritated…in a touched sort of way.

Still, he was disgruntled enough not to actually use any of the tech for a solid week before succumbing to his nerdy impulses. Whilst he used worldwide databases in order to start organizing some experiments he'd had in his mind, experiments being of the 'Bruce – Other Guy = Future' variety, he didn't see any news broadcasts for another week.

So Bruce only read the headlines 'New York Sues Tony Stark' two weeks after they had happened.

Tony hadn't told him.

The action had been filed and legal proceedings begun only a few days after Tony nearly died for the city. Bruce had left a few days before the actual Court dates.

He had lived in Stark Tower, one of the most technological buildings in the world whilst this was happening, yet Bruce wasn't surprised that he didn't know. When he was at Stark Tower he didn't leave, not with the paparazzi circling the building like jackals, and inside it would've been only too easy for Tony to order JARVIS to ensure Bruce didn't learn about it on the news.

Bruce knew this was the sort of thing Tony would do. He didn't know _why _he would do it, but he did know he would.

'New York Sues Tony Stark,' and various articles of that nature, was the theme of all of the news websites. Though he was two weeks too late it only took Bruce five minutes of searching on his brand new computer, placed on rickety wooden table, to read the whole story.

A whole bunch of people wanted to sue Tony, because there was always a whole bunch of people who wanted to sue Tony. Only now, they had a way in. The case against Tony was being represented by the New York Council, who was suing Tony for the creation of an inter-dimensional portal above New York City and all of the subsequent damages and loss of life.

The articles had blow-by-blow accounts of the Tony vs Council back and forth.

Tony was quoted.

A lot.

"It wasn't an interdimensional portal, it was a wormhole. It's like you guys know nothing about physics. If I am going to be sued for creating something that, by the definition of America's finest, should be impossible to create, you're going to get its damn name right."

…and…

"Technically Stark Tower didn't create the portal, it's just a case of wrong place, wrong time. That can happen to buildings too, you know."

…and…

"Wow, this coffee _sucks_."

…and…

"I'm not withholding in contempt of Court! I mean, I am contemptuous of this Court, but that's not why I'm withholding information. Ever heard of National Security?"

"Are you saying, Mr. Stark, that you are withholding information in regards to National Security."

"No, I was just asking if you'd ever heard about it."

"Mr. Stark, you're coming very close to be in contem-"

"So sue me…oh wait! You are!"

Bruce knew it wasn't National Security holding Tony's…well, he could hardly say that Tony Stark was 'holding his tongue,' or that he was 'keeping his silence.'

Tony wasn't say what should go unsaid, but he was doing so by running his mouth off about everything else.

Because the information about the wormhole was more of a Planetry Security matter; people would probably be rather upset to learn that the Tesseract and Loki, the key causes of the Battle, were both currently being subject to the justice systems of a different galaxy.

Tony couldn't defend himself in this case, not when doing so would compromise the safety of humanity as well as sell out SHEILD, and by extension the Avengers.

As he thought about this Bruce found a link.

'Watch Court Proceedings Live.'

He clicked on it with the mouse Tony had included with some disdain (he'd included a sticky note attached to the mouse…saying something about 'archaic technology.')

The screen switched the live feed and the camera was, unsurprisingly, focused and zoomed in on Tony's face.

The camera loved Tony and the camera hated Tony.

In the media these had very similar outcomes.

There was text scrolling along the bottom of the screen, 'New York Council Sues Tony Stark For The Creation Of A Wormhole Above New York City,' and a voice coming from off screen, talking about the dangers of undisclosed Stark technologies.

Bruce wasn't reading the text or listening to the droning voice, he was looking at Tony, whose face had lines.

Tony was sitting with his head leant on his right arm. He didn't look relaxed or irritated, he looked stressed and angry. In his left hand was a pen he must have disemboweled earlier in the proceedings, the spring had somehow made it into his glass of water.

His black hair was unkempt but his beard was its usual so-sharp-it-could-cut-someone.

His brows were down and his eyes were pinched with the expression of somebody who has already imagined the sudden beheading of the person irritating them about a hundred times.

Or, knowing Tony, the spontaneous explosion.

Despite his scruffy hair and haggard expression Tony's suit was surprisingly neat.

Pepper Potts work, Bruce expected. She wasn't there; she was probably making sure the company survived for long enough in the media for Tony to save it in the Courts.

Tony's tie was black and much thicker than usual. It only took Bruce a moment to reason that this was probably to hide the arc reactor, though this was somewhat useless as the world already knew it was there.

Bruce wondered, with the empty feeling he got from compartmentalizing anger, if Tony's enemies didn't just want the disclosure of Tony's designs, but the physical hand over of Tony's technology as well.

He wondered if they even wanted the arc reactor that had fuelled the wormhole half as much as they wanted the arc reactor that was keeping Tony alive.

Bruce knew Obadiah Stane had stolen the arc reactor straight out of Tony's chest, Tony wasn't jealous of the information.

And though Stane was dead, the dream had not died with him.

It confused and slightly frightened Bruce, that there were people who wanted Tony dead _so badly_ and wanted to kill him in such a personal way.

There were many battles Bruce couldn't help Tony with, even though all he wanted to do was anything at all.

But this was not one of those times.

Seeing Tony, reduced into pixels, in the Courtroom, taking the fall for the Avengers in an entirely new way, Bruce knew he couldn't just leave him there.

Tony wasn't facing an enemy he could just blast away.

These were nasty, shrewd people and if the Court ruled in their favour Tony would just have to submit every part of himself to them because to do otherwise would be to become a threat to those he worked so hard to protect.

Bruce knew what it felt like to be in trouble and having precisely no one offer him a helping hand.

Knew that Tony might be feeling that way right now, facing down the united power of the Courts and vindictiveness of his enemies without a single other Avenger or SHEILD agent or any ally at all by his side.

He wondered if Tony had sent him away merely because he didn't want Bruce's help or because he wouldn't be able to stand it if Bruce stood idly by as he was fed to the wolves.

Bruce had saved him when he felt out of the wormhole above New York, but maybe that just made Tony fear the betrayal more, because it would cut so much closer to the bone.

Bruce didn't know, he didn't care.

Whatever the reasons were he couldn't leave Tony to face the Avenger's demons on his own.

**/TONY STARK\\**

These people were idiots

Thinking that they had even the tiniest chance of getting Tony's technology was enough to warrant an admission, preferably forceful, into a psych hospital in Tony's opinion.

Of course, he didn't know how he was going to stop them getting his technology. There was almost no chance of him coming out on top in this Court case and even if he destroyed all of his technology before the case had finished he could hardly destroy the piece inside him.

As long as he was living he had more than his life to lose.

The miniaturized arc reactor design could _not _be released to the public.

It just couldn't.

It was too easy to weaponize, too easy to abuse, too easy to turn into something that would be twenty-times worse than anything Tony had ever designed before.

Obadiah Stane had proven that.

Tony would think of a solution, he just needed time. Thankfully wormhole-physics in relation to civil law was an as of yet uncharted area, so there were a lot of distractions and definitions and debates about said distractions and debates.

Tony just hoped he would have time enough to think of something before the court ruled he had to hand over his heart…and his arc reactor.

His technology…his every waking moment…JARVIS…they even wanted JARVIS!

This case had the potential to end him in all the ways he cared _not _to be ended.

He just needed a way out.

Think, Tony.

If only he could think.

Because they kept asking him questions and he had to keep interrupting their spiels to defend himself. He couldn't focus on finding land because he was too busy trying to keep his head above the water.

If only there was somebody to help him, talk to the Court for him, distract the Court for long enough for Tony to find a way out.

But there was no one.

Pepper would've been here in a heartbeat, in less than that, but the company would sink if she took her hands off the wheel for even a moment.

Happy wanted to help but couldn't. He was a great friend but he wasn't so great at the talking thing.

Tony gave Rhodey credit for helping if he was here, but he was not. He had noticed that the U.S. military was on the long, long list of plaintiffs and he expected they were keeping Rhodey out of radio-contact for as long as it took to bury Tony Stark.

SHEILD. Tony wasn't surprised SHEILD wasn't here. SHEILD would've crawled down whichever hole it came out of until this had all blown over, whether or not Tony got blown over in the process. Tony would not be surprised in the metaphorical hole was literal, nor would he be surprised if Fury had managed to get the entire helicarrier down it into Wonderland.

Tony amused himself for a while, imagining Fury as a variety of Wonderland characters.

He supposed that he himself was Alice, thrown into a world he didn't have a hope of understanding.

He was just an eccentric inventor!

A brilliant one, yes, a drop-dead genius, it's a given, but aliens? Gods? Super soldiers? Really?

Speaking of which…

Tony glared at whoever it was who was speaking, it didn't really matter, they all wanted to tear him limb from limb, because the people he wanted to glare at weren't here.

It wasn't that he was angry with the Avengers for not helping him; Tony was way too proud to want that.

His anger was far less definable then simple abandonment issues.

It was…

What was it?

It was being taken for granted. It was being used. It was being dragged into something and watching people die. It was the difference between flying through a wormhole and being left to take everybody's fall for them.

It was letting people in and only getting hurt, then people neither acknowledging that he'd let them in nor that they had hurt him. It was injured pride for feeling this way.

Being left behind in the dark is bad, being left behind on a spotlight is worse.

Because unless you're careful everyone will watch you, everyone will see your pain.

Like a car crash on the world stage, everybody watches Tony Stark.

Okay…so there were a few abandonment issues.

But come on, he was a genius billionaire inventor, he had to have a quirky emotional side.

He just wished nobody could see it.

Tony turned his face to the camera and bared his teeth in his trademark smile.

**/BRUCE BANNER\\**

It took two days to get to New York and Pepper was glad to see him. Tony had already left for the day.

To Bruce's surprise the paparazzi took very little interest in him. It was probably his moth eaten jacket and baggy pants. They didn't see Bruce Banner, the Hulk, the Other Guy; they saw a bedraggled man, possibly homeless though probably a janitor of some sorts.

Pepper gave him a whole suit, the perfect size, then went to make arrangements for him as he changed.

Normally Bruce turned into something green.

This time he turned into something with a little more potential.

A car was waiting for him in the underground car park that Bruce was not surprised existed. He made it out of the paparazzi pack without being recognized, though of course he was going to blow this out of the water.

As the car drove to Court Bruce turned on the radio.

The radio was playing catch-up on what they called the latest 'Stark Saga' and the pride of the alliteration was clear in the host's voice. A few audio clips were played.

The edge on Tony's voice was different to when Bruce had left the tower.

Then it had been sharp and we're-okay.

Now it was sharp and I-want-to-cut-you.

Bruce thought 'Hold on, Tony,' but he was smiling. If Tony was still fighting it wasn't too late.

As Bruce had so uncharacteristically requested the car pulled up out of the front of the Courts. His even more uncharacteristic, bordering on psychotic, request for a gaggle of cameras had been fulfilled by Pepper doing the ring around. (Or she just yelled out one of the lower Stark Tower window, either would have the same effect.)

"Bruce Banner!"

"Bruce Banner!"

"Mr. Banner!"

Then, for the first time in his life Bruce wanted to hear the name,

"Hulk!"

He smiled to the camera and fisted his hands, just for them.

Lights flashed, he moved through the crowd. He smiled, he glared.

He frightened.

"Just through here, Mr Hulk Banner, I mean, Sir Bruce Hulk Sir, I mean…" A tiny man was trying to escort Bruce to the side room he would wait in, but was too terrified to form coherent sentences.

This made Bruce sad…but also fierce with achievement.

Today he wanted to frighten.

It took half an hour for them to call him.

"Witness for the defense!"

Now that was a title he'd never had before.

Everyone was turning around, though by the time Tony had looked the people closest to Bruce were already onto their double takes.

Tony didn't do a double take.

He did look mighty surprised though.

His right hand was gripping the back of his chair and his left wear he had left it on the table with the beginnings of another eviscerated ballpoint.

His eyes, still sharp from arguing all morning, were on Bruce's face, affirming it was him. Bruce gave a nod as he pulled on one sleeve, straightening, trying to look intimidating through neatness in the way Tony sometimes did.

"Ah, yes," swallowed the judge, "witness for the defense…ah…Mr…Bruce Banner."

"Call me 'the Hulk,'" Bruce said, his nervousness hidden by his raised voice.

His nervousness receded as the judge blanched.

"Hulk!" Tony was on his feet now, smiling to Bruce with the knowledge that 'the Hulk' was not his name, the knowledge of what Bruce was doing.

"Are these people bothering you?" Bruce said, trying to sound stern as Tony strode over to wring his hands.

"Oh yes," Tony nodded, taking Bruce's attempt at acting and turning it into a Broadway show, "they are bothering me a lot. Can you do something about that?"

"Oh, I reckon I can think of something," Bruce said. He was now trying a smarmy-intimidating smile. Tony's grin of smug-retribution validated Bruce's expression to everybody there and all of Tony's enemies visibly shrank in their seats.

The case lasted as long as it took to find Tony not-guilty as soon as humanly possible and get him and the Hulk out of there.

Nobody wanted to be around the Hulk…especially when they were currently suing his best friend.

**/TONY STARK\\**

Knowing somebody had got his back was the greatest feeling, Tony decided.

He'd thought people had it before, but many of them were untested or had fallen through.

But Bruce, walking into a Courtroom full of people, marching in full view of the press, embracing the Other Guy he hated just to get Tony out of his mess…that was something else.

That was another level of awesomeness.

Tony suspected that Bruce suspected Tony's feelings, because he kept giving him knowing, and slightly exasperated, smiles as Tony strutted from the Courtroom on final day. Tony made peace signs in the air above them and ducked his head so that he could look over the sunglasses he was wearing inside. Bruce could've done with the sunglasses more than Tony; what with his perpetual look of somebody squinting through glare.

The cameras flashed. One of the bolder journalists put a microphone under Bruce's face and he looked at it like it was some strange kind of fish. Tony gave Bruce a raised eyebrow of I-got-this and grabbed the microphone, pulling it around to himself.

He hated the spotlight when he didn't want it.

When he did want it though…

He _owned _it.

Pepper decided that Tony felt like taking Bruce to Malibu for a while. The legal battle was over but apparently she could do without Tony crowing from the roof of Stark Tower every morning.

Tony protested long and loud about the visual of him 'crowing' from the roof of anything but nobody listened to him. Pepper, Bruce and Happy were too busy thinking of how highly accurate that visual was.

But Bruce agreed to go to Malibu with Tony and Happy, so Tony recovered from his indignation quickly.

He was pleased, though Pepper called him 'thoroughly over-excited.'

Of course Bruce was quick to point out that they would be taking a private jet which would involve mostly flying, with a little runway on the edges, to which Tony made an irritated noise in Bruce's general direction and flapped his hands in a 'I accuse you of being a pedantic' sort of way (it was a complicated gesture with limited success.)

Bruce redeemed himself though. He was familiar with Tony's eccentricities and the way tiny eccentricities delighted him, so pulled out a packet of beef jerky whilst on the privately owned jet. From then on Tony ignored the works of his private in-flight chef and ate only beef jerky. He got a terrible stomach ache, which for some reason Bruce said he deserved, but it was worth it.

**/BRUCE BANNER\\**

Tony gave Bruce his own room in Malibu and authentication with JARVIS so that he could make his own private server and files. He also gave Bruce access to the Stark Industry order forms so that Bruce could get all of the highly specific chemicals and equipment to do all of the experiments he'd ever wanted to do but had never had the funding for.

Some people might think that Tony giving people stuff was easy to the point of being meaningless, but Bruce knew better. He knew Tony didn't see it as just giving him stuff. To Tony, he was offering Bruce the chance to enjoy the freedom to discovery, invent and innovate that Tony had always enjoyed. He was offering to Bruce something that gave himself great joy.

It wasn't always easy to understand Tony, and sometimes it involved looking at himself closer then he cared to, but he was perhaps the best friend Bruce had had in a long time.

And to think, it had all started with Tony saying he was huge fan of the way he lost control and turned into an enormous green rage monster, followed shortly by Tony electrocuting him.

No…it wasn't easy to understand Tony.

But that was okay.

Because he understood him well enough for now.


End file.
